hypa has
recently adopted a policy of honesty and openness, which is why
we now make available much of the important information in our
possession. The information below has been released by hypa to
media outlets, so it may already have been reported in your local
media.

hypa
Press Release: 21 November 1997 at 0900 EST

As the instability in the
Middle East continues, hypa believes that we should all consider
what may happen in the event that the crisis becomes more
serious.

hypa can now reveal that
despite a long history of denials, the United States Department
of Defence has made plans for assuming control of virtually all
internet capabilities. The existing plans recognise that this
would be a last resort in the event of a "direct, severe and
sustained" threat to the national security of the United
States. There are three main reasons why the American authorities
have developed these plans

The first is that if this
plan were implemented military traffic would then have complete
use of all available band-width, speeding up their communications
at what the military would regard as a crucial time. If parts of
the internet's 'backbone' were damaged through violence or
electronic sabotage, the aim is that all the free capacity would
allow the military communications network to continue functioning
correctly and speedily.

There has recently been
increasing public awareness regarding the second reason that this
plan was developed. The American (and other) governments are
aware that some terrorist groups and potentially hostile powers
use the internet as a means of secure communication. This
includes communicating with agents inside western countries.
Therefore limiting use of the internet to US military approved
communications would, it is thought, disrupt the plans of enemies
and limit the damage they could do. In reality, though,
governments also have more traditional means of communication at
their disposal.

The third motivation
behind this plan is that the threat to take over the internet can
be held over the head of the telecommunications industry by the
United States government. In discussions this threat is often
mentioned obliquely whenever the industry opposes U.S. plans to
restrict secure encryption technology.

We are aware that there
will be severe criticism of our decision to divulge this
information from some
quarters. However, it is a decision that was taken lightly. It is
our belief that such issues should be discussed openly, even if
there is some damage to the national security of the United
States done in the process.